Companies and organizations increasingly use videoconferencing to reduce traveling expenses and to save time. To create a satisfactory videoconference, a videoconferencing system has to emulate what participants would expect during a regular, face-to-face meeting with other participants, including the ability to have sub-conference with a particular subset of the participants.
In one example, participants of a face-to-face meeting in a business environment may belong to different groups, organizations, etc. During the meeting, the participants of one group may wish to privately discuss certain issues among themselves as a sub-conference while the main meeting is still ongoing. In another example, a lecturer in an educational environment may wish to present material to an entire class of students while having a private session with one or more of the students.
Unfortunately, current videoconferencing systems only allow a participant to conduct a single videoconference because a common videoconference endpoint cannot participate in two or more videoconferences (video sessions) simultaneously. Therefore, participants that would like to have a private session (e.g., a sub-conference) while the main videoconference is still ongoing are required to use an outside communication source, such as a telephone, a cellular telephone, Short Message System (SMS) messaging, etc.
As is known in the art, a videoconferencing endpoint is a terminal on a network. The endpoint is capable of providing real-time, two-way audio and visual communication with other endpoints or a multipoint control unit (MCU). A multimedia endpoint may provide audio and video, or audio, video, and data. An MCU is a videoconference controlling entity typically located in a node of the network. The MCU receives several channels from access ports, processes audiovisual signals according to certain criteria, and distributes the audiovisual signals to the connected channels. The information communicated between the endpoints and the MCU includes control signals, indicators, audio, video, and/or data. An example of an MCU is the MGC-100, which is available from Polycom Inc., the assignee of the present disclosure. Additional information about the MCG-100 can be found at the website of www.polycom.com. Additional information on an endpoint (terminal) and an MCU can be found in the International Telecommunication Union (“ITU”) standards H.320, H.321, and H.323.
U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/144,561, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety, discloses a system and a method for conducting a private audio session during a main audio or videoconference. However, this application does not allow a participant to conduct a private video session during a main videoconference. Furthermore, a need exists for a videoconferencing system that allows a participant to invite some participants to a sub-conference without informing all participants of the main videoconference.